YREKA – Tulelake’s former clerk/treasurer who embezzled over $10,000 of city funds was sentenced last Wednesday in the Siskiyou County Superior Court.

Superior Court Judge Karen Dixon sentenced Kim Marie Keiser, 43, to 180 days in jail followed by three years of probation. She was ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution to the city of Tulelake. In addition, she is barred from ever taking public office in the state of California.

Last month, Keiser pleaded guilty to one felony count of appropriating public money. The guilty plea was part of a plea agreement with the Siskiyou County District Attorney’s Office.

District Attorney Kirk Andrus explained that Keiser does not have a prior criminal record, and her offense is not prison-eligible. He said the plea agreement allowed for a speedy resolution to the case, and even if the case had been tried, she would not have been eligible to face a lengthy period of incarceration.

According to Siskiyou County Deputy District Attorney John Quinn, who prosecuted the case, if Keiser violates the terms and conditions of her probation, she will face up to four years in state prison.

Tulelake Police Chief Tony Ross said Keiser served as Tulelake’s administrative clerk and treasurer for approximately seven years.

Quinn stated that Keiser embezzled the money while she worked at Tulelake City Hall, where she accepted cash payments from utility customers.

“She was intercepting utility payments and she later falsified the books to hide that she did that,” said Quinn.

Andrus stated that when city officials began to notice discrepancies in the books, they hired an independent auditor who concluded that Keiser had been pocketing utility payments and crediting customer accounts.

The 2010-11 Grand Jury went on to investigate the series of mismanaged city accounts and found that Tulelake had been operating for years without periodic audits.

“This was obviously a very significant sum of money,” said Andrus. “This was not something that was going on for a long period of time. When she appropriated the money, the city caught it quickly.”

Keiser was charged on Nov. 21, 2012 with one count of appropriating public money, two counts of keeping false records of public money and two counts of committing a crime as a public officer. All but a single felony charge of appropriating public money were dropped when she accepted the plea agreement.

“Public officials must be held accountable when they violate the trust of the people they are supposed to be serving,” said Andrus.